Friday, 22 October 2010

That’ll Do, Pig…

Cuddling up to their mother, these African piglets were more than an endearing attraction for zoo visitors.

They were also the successful product of a breeding programme aimed at keeping alive endangered species.

Awwww, look at their little snouts! Look at their tiny feet! Look at their…

Oh:

Zoo managers had hoped that many more of these rare Red River Hogs would be born in future. But yesterday it emerged the piglets had been killed by one of the zoo’s own vets.

The pair, named Sammi and Becca, were destroyed at Edinburgh Zoo to comply with the controversial requirements of a European breeding project – after being deemed ‘surplus to requirements’.

God lord, is there nothing the EU can’t screw up?

It is feared that three other piglets currently at the zoo could also be culled. The move has outraged staff and horrified animal welfare campaigners. One staff member said: ‘We didn’t have any say. I found it pretty disgusting and was rather upset.’

Once you cede control to any ghastly organisation hatched by Europe, you have no say.

You might be as proud as punch with your success in breeding an endangered species, indeed it may be the only one of it’s kind in the UK, but if there’s too many of that species in captivity across the continent to suit the suits in their cosy offices, then Piglet gets the Big Sleep.

No appeals, no last-minute phone calls…

The culls have come about because of the zoo’s membership of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, which runs the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP). It manages the breeding of endangered animals in zoos.

Want to get out of Europe now, bunny-huggers? Or do you want to see more Red Dead River Hogs...?

The reason for the cull is because they don't want too much inbreeding with such a small gene pool.

Even taking that into account, there is no reason to perform a cull. Just neuter them or maybe even sell them to a different continent where the issue over a small gene pool (within Europe) is not such a problem.

The EU attitude is similar to that over fishing about over fishing. The impose a limit to try and stop over fishing and depleting stock. This limit forces fishermen to throw back into the sea any fish that are over quota. EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE ALREADY DEAD. So the limit does nothing in stopping endangered fish from dying.

As always, it's the usual thing about civil servents/politicians coming up with ideas but not thinking it through.

Here's an Englishman's view of the Red River Hog, which is somewhat different to that of the EU.

"...I had no wish to leave the small piglet in the bush, where it would have provided a small but tasty morsel for a passing lepoard so...I decided to make a pet of it. This proved embarassingly easy. Within a few days the pig would not leave me, trotting at my heels wherever I went. It was a male, and I named him Abock, the Mendjim Mey word for a local small red rat, which he closely resembled.... Abock was a resounding success with Maton's children. They made a great fuss of him.... had no difficulty house-training him, and in this and many other things he behaved exactly like a dog, even sitting up in a clumsy, hoggish way to beg for tit-bits... gave the children rides on his broad back."(Late one evening there was a disturbance from his stable, which he shared with two domestic sows. The story continues thusly - richard)"In the far corner of the stable, snarling and spitting, crouched a big male leopard. Holding him at bay was Abock, his sturdy bottocks quivering with rage, his red hair standing bolt upright, making him look enormous... the leopard hurled himself at the hog, and the two animals roly-polied across the floor, ending up with a crash against the door and breaking it open. The leopard had had enough and hared off into the darkness, holding his tail stiffly upright out of harm's way. Domestic animals of this calibre were clearly outside his experience of natural history. but Abock had not done with him yet, and when the leopard disappeared from our sight, the pig was clearly two feet behind him. There was nothing (we) could do to help the courageous pig, and he seemed perfectly capable of dealing with the situation hiself. And so it proved.... Half an hour later he came back, to be welcomed as a hero by his ladies with little snorts of admiration and loving muzzles.... Next morning we found the leopards body....The skin was too damaged to save but Maton gave me the skull, which is now in the Powell-Cotton Museum, Birchington, Kent.

richard adds - Killing these fine little piglets was callous and unnecessary. But that's the EU all over. NB: The above extract is taken from "Gorillas were my neighbours" by the great naturalist and big-game hunter, Fred G. Merfield.

Here's an Englishman's view of the Red River Hog, which is somewhat different to that of the EU.

"...I had no wish to leave the small piglet in the bush, where it would have provided a small but tasty morsel for a passing lepoard so...I decided to make a pet of it. This proved embarassingly easy. Within a few days the pig would not leave me, trotting at my heels wherever I went. It was a male, and I named him Abock, the Mendjim Mey word for a local small red rat, which he closely resembled.... Abock was a resounding success with Maton's children. They made a great fuss of him.... had no difficulty house-training him, and in this and many other things he behaved exactly like a dog, even sitting up in a clumsy, hoggish way to beg for tit-bits... gave the children rides on his broad back."

Slightly late, perhaps, but I read in the Sunday Times of how the RSSPCA have a new policy of harassing witnesses whose testimony they disapprove of. Free speech in Britain is now confined to retired people.